Month: August 2017

Preparedness Notes for Saturday – August 05, 2017

August 5th is the sad anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire in Montana that took the lives of 13 firefighters (including 12 smokejumpers and one former smokejumper), in 1949. The intense, fast-moving forest fire took place in what later became the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness. The events of that fire were chronicled in the book Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean and immortalized in the haunting lyrics of the ballad Cold Missouri Watersby James Keelaghan.


Guest Post: In A Better World, by Gary Christenson

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In a better world we might expect: Individuals, corporations, and governments spend no more than their income. “Honest” money is used by all, has intrinsic value, retains its purchasing power and is not counterfeited by individuals or bankers. Governments and bankers support and encourage “honest” money. Alas, we live in this world and must realize that: Debt has increased rapidly for the past century. Example: U.S. national debt has expanded from roughly $3 billion to $20 trillion. Currencies are IOU’s issued by central banks who promote ever-increasing currency in circulation, expanding debt, and continual devaluations in purchasing power. The “fiat-currency-game” …


The Editors’ Preps for the Week

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To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make long-term and short-term plans. Steadily, we work on meeting our prepping goals. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities.  They also share their planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, property improvements, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year. We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in the Comments. Let’s keep busy and be ready!  This …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. More absurdness from our public schools is revealed today. Communications Sans Cellphones Imaging trying to communicate with your loved ones if the cell phone network suddenly stopped working. Can you reach your spouse at work? How about your kids while at their friends house or at some activity they are participating in? Most preppers have at least considered the possibility and many have actively planned for alternat communications. If you are one …



Preparedness Notes for Friday – August 04, 2017

On August 4th, 1944, 15-year old Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family were captured by the Nazi Gestapo. The Franks had taken shelter in a small space in a sealed off area of an Amsterdam warehouse along with another Jewish family and a single Jewish man. They were aided by Christian friends who brought them food and supplies. Her diary survived the war, overlooked by the Gestapo, but Anne and nearly all of the others perished in the Nazi death camps.


July in Precious Metals, by Steven Cochran

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Welcome to SurvivalBlog’s Precious Metals Month in Review, by Steven Cochran of Gainesville Coins, where we take a look at “the month that was” in precious metals. Each month, we cover the price action of gold and examine the “what” and “why” behind those numbers. What Did Gold Do In July? Gold started July off with a bang but not the kind it wanted. A big jump in wholesale prices in the manufacturing sector on July 3rd sent gold plunging to the $1,220 mark. On July 3rd, North Korea successfully tested its first ICBM capable of reaching the United States. …


Freeze Dried Friday:

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Welcome to Freeze Dried Friday on SurvivalBlog! We’ve been making so many things in the Harvest Right Freeze Dryer that we want to share some of them with you. If you have something wonderful you’ve prepared in your freeze dryer that you would like to share with SurvivalBlog readers, take a photo of it and send it in along with a description. We might just feature you here! Freeze Dried Tomato Meat Sauce is today’s feature. Broken Pump Seal Update I received the supply of spare parts I ordered including the spare vacuum cartridge. An interesting note is that I …


Economics & Investing For Preppers

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Here are the latest items and commentary on current economics news, market trends, stocks, investing opportunities, and the precious metals markets. We also cover hedges, derivatives, and obscura. And it bears mention that most of these items are from the “tangibles heavy” contrarian perspective of JWR. (SurvivalBlog’s Founder and Senior Editor.) Today’s focus is on the False Recovery.  (See the Stocks section, below.) Precious Metals: The spot price of platinum is still in the doldrums, but recently saw an uptick.  Any point in time when you can buy an ounce of platinum for less than ounce of gold, then it …



Preparedness Notes for Thursday – August 03, 2017

August 3rd, 1846 is the day that the Donner party found a note warning the emigrants that their expected route through the mountains ahead was nearly impassable. Hastings, an unscrupulous trail guide had created his own “short cut” route and wasn’t even at the meeting place at Fort Bridger, but had left word for the part to continue on. Hastings had claimed easy passage through the rugged Wasatch Mountains, but had left a note attached to a forked stick for the party explaining that the route was more difficult than he thought. Eventually reduced to cannibalism, only 45 of the …


The Novice And The Expert- Part 3, by Old Bobbert

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Yesterday, we took a look at what we’d need to do first in the event of an EMP and just barely began to look at the possibility of a tsunami or serious flood across the U.S. East Coast, causing complete evacuation and shut down. We’ll continue today to look at this incident and others that might happen. East Coast Tsunami (continued) In the event that the New York City financial service system shuts down, for any reason, that singular event will shut down the entire world banking system. Awe, shucks! And this will happen while the system is correcting itself …


Typeay’s Book Review: The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun, by Matt Bracken

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So, how does one categorize The Red Cliffs of Zerhoun? In my opinion, you simply can’t. Anyone taking a cursory glance at Amazon’s current fiction novel listings will confirm what many folks may have already surmised. The past few years have seen an explosion of what is commonly now referred to as “dystopian fiction”. In the typical dystopian tome, a lone protagonist or group sets out on a quest for survival in what was once the world as he, or she, knew it. I will cut right to the chase.  Matt Bracken’s latest novel is not a work of dystopian …


The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods:

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods— a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from “HJL”. Wait till you hear about the new YouTube Censoring rules! “Hand Out” Survival Kit SensiblePrepper has a YouTube video where he goes through a simple kit that you can put together to “hand out” to those who are with you on an outing, hike or camping trip. It contains simple to use items such as fire lighting kit, flashlight, knife, emergency poncho and simple first aid kit (boo boo kit), and a …